We originally planned to create a Save the Date that combined the map design and calendar stickers featured in Martha Stewart Weddings a few years ago; however, when I started calculating the cost of supplies and thinking about the logistics, I decided that it wasn’t feasible for our budget. I began brainstorming for ideas during my commute from work one evening and decided:

I wanted a design that would allow me to get 1-2 cards per sheet of paper and NOT look like something the church secretary made for the bake sale using clip art and Microsoft Word.

The design couldn’t be too girly for my fiance’s sake.

I wanted minimal layout and/or assembly on my part.

I literally sat on the L folding and re-folding a piece of paper that I pulled out of some packaging for the wedding binder supplies I bought that day. Then the finger Wingdings character popped in my head and I spent the rest of the ride turning my index finger in different directions trying to think of things to say. I think that I frightened the nun sitting across from me. By the end of the evening, I had designed our Save the Date. The printer that I used didn’t have any cool paper bag style card stock to funk it up a bit, but I think that our compromise is nice considering it was for a wedding and it went to some older, traditional guests. And it also gave me the opportunity to introduce the color scheme and dot graphics for the wedding invitations. I actually had guy friends call and e-mail me to comment on the Save the Dates.

My husband and I met in Brooklyn and he is an airbrush artist heavily into graffiti. I moved him out to the West Coast but we tried to capture some of the spirit of Brooklyn in our wedding. It was styled around art and graffiti and we used our Save the Dates and Invitations to announce this to our guests. We were married at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA where we were surrounded by crazy colors and sculptures. It was wonderful!

Our Save the Dates were ordered on www.kodakgallery.com. It is their accordian-style card. I found a 30% off coupon code online and it saved me so much. They made a huge impression. We would meet friends of our friends and they would recognize us from seeing the card. People told us we looked like models thanks to our photographer, Cheryl at www.inaframe.com. We had her squeezing behind fences and playing look-out when my husband spraypainted a heart for us to stand in front of. It is a great memory. We are both known by nicknames so we used them on our STD cards which I loved.